Review

Review Summary: This is the greatest piece of classical music ever. Vivaldi's The Four Seasons truly stands the test of time. It's also the best album of 1725!!

One sits in a chair sipping on the finest wine and watches the embers of the fireplace fill the room with a smoky glisten to them. They are surrounded by a room of magnificent proportions. Illustrious paintings fill the walls and decorative Fleur de Lis’ are present throughout the unique architectural structure of the room. It’s a calm and peaceful day, but soon the livelihood of the music will bring forward a wanting for more, and the situation may turn vivacious

This is a perfect setting to describe Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. While Vivaldi may have been Italian, his music gives off that perfect French Royalty vibe. Composed in 1723, Vivaldi brought together a piece that would stand the test of time. His superlative virtuoso of the violin proved him to be one of the cornerstones for the Baroque period in music.

The Four Seasons. is split up into four parts: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. Spring starts out with probably the most famous violin arrangement ever composed. This song makes the listener sit back in their chair and smile because of the warmth it brings to the ears and soul. Even when it gets to the slower portions, it still maintains that good vibe. This would have been a perfect piece of music to play at an aristocratic party in the 18th century.

We next travel to the season of Summer. Though not as uplifting as Spring, Summer brings forth my favorite season of this classical masterpiece. Starting out almost in a dreary like pace, the violins soon pick up for an onslaught of speed, but then quickly go back to that slow methodical vibe that lasts for the majority of this piece. The last three minutes though, pick up the pace to almost a hellacious tone. The violins make the listener get out of his chair in wonder of the pure speed that these instruments are being played. The hauntingly dark course that the music takes makes the listener drop his glass of fine wine on the floor. He is in complete awe and amazement of what just occurred. He waits for the next score to be played.

Autumn approaches the listener, and it brings back a familiar vibe that Spring brought out. He is getting a little upset with the darker and gloomier side that is coming towards him a few minutes in though. No need to worry though, that goodness of the music returns soon. As we approach the end, the listener stands up and starts marching around the grand room for no apparent reason. The violins feel like trumpet calls for the king as he approaches the townspeople.

The listener then looks outside his window to see if this was actually happening. He becomes disappointed when he sees that there is snow everywhere; Winter has come upon him. This is the period where he returns to his chair and resumes looking at the fireplace. His mind is going as fast as the strings are during this song. Everything that has occurred within these past thirty plus minutes is being consciously played through his head again. It slows down though to that smooth comfortable pace again. It brings forth a melodic side that wasn’t really seen that much during the duration of his stay in the room. The listener is getting tired from these drastic changes in mood though. He starts to fall asleep and he lays his head down on the arm of the chair. The journey is not over though, as we approach the end. The fire is still ablaze, but the listener cracked open the window a bit. The fire is now extinguished and the music has come to a stop.

This is a good review, I really like romantic and modern "classical" music, but I've never been a big baroque fan. I guess I'll check this out because it sounds interesting, but I don't know if I'll love it.

Also, why would the greatest classical piece you've ever heard not be worthy of a 5?

great review, sputnikmusic needs a lot more classical album-reviews.
I've once heard/watched The Four Seasons being performed by a professional orchestra (I just don't remember wich one, it's been a long, long while). I think my parents have a CD lying somewhere around, I'm going to look for it tomorrow.

well, I've found the CD and listened to it two times today. It's amazingly original and fresh, and it's great how Vivaldi captures the mood of every of the seasons. I would have mentioned in the review the sonnets Vivaldi had written to make clear what goes on in every part of this composition. He has created dog barks, thunder, a hunting scene and a whole lot more within the music. Once you know what is what, it's more like watching a scene in your mind than listening to music. I've never really had that kind of experience before.
However, I can't rate it a 5 because there are other classical pieces I love much more, by Mozart, Beethoven and Bach mostly. Still I've touched that genre only very slightly.

Indeed, the mentioning of musical articulations through the string quartet would have been a good addition to the review. In many ways it is one of the first propositions of the tone poem, but wasn't exploited further within the baroque era until the classical master came along, Beethoven.